30 April 2015

San Diego: Part 2

Let's wrap this up...

Legoland:
Now I have nothing against legos (I'm a big fan) and I'm definitely not against theme parks (Disney kid, born and raised) but taking a 3 and 5 year old to Legoland was probably not the best way to spend our money. It was included in the San Diego GoPass, but at their ages there wasn't too much for them to do, 2-3 rides for the little one, a couple more for the 5 year old. It really ended up being a glorified building legos day. My advice go back when your kids are a bit older- this place is perfect for 8-12 year olds. Otherwise the park is fine, the food selection was actually fantastic. They had a market at the beginning of the park with Stonyfield organic yogurt, Sprout baby food squeezes and Ben & Jerry's mini-pint ice cream. The rides were very much kid oriented- I can see why they may have not allowed adults into the park on their own when the place first opened.

Old Town San Diego:
Once upon a time San Diego was a blip on the radar, and they had this cute little town. You can now go "tour" that place. See some of the original buildings, or at least where they once stood. They give daily tours, just about everything is free. Pretty touristy but some decent Mexican food around. You can also go see the blacksmith or the general store. Worth a half-day trip. Another, kind of odd, place to stop while in the area is the Mormon Battalion Museum. Believe it or not, a large group of Mormons helped make the San Diego town the town. They helped build wells, taught the locals how to make bricks etc. The Mormons have made an excellent, hands-on, interactive museum to share this part of the story. At the end you can even pan for gold, work a well, and learn how to bake some bricks. Plus they have a nice tower that gives some great views of the city. Definitely worth the stop, no matter what your religion is.

this little one didn't actual want to go inside any buildings so we just ran around outside..

The New Children's Museum and Balboa Park (again):
I thought the Children's Museum was great, very hands on (as they should be) lots of places to run around, explore, craft. It is on the newer side (hence the new in the name) and a lot of local artists contributed to the different spaces. We enjoyed playing in the giant kitchen sink, making bubbles, and building some fun stuff out of clay. On this day we headed to the bay for lunch which lead to some boat watching and then headed back to Balboa to hang out at a few playgrounds, enjoy the science museum again and scooter around the sidewalks.

and they had a sand pit.. our favorite!

The San Diego Zoo:
This place more than lived up to its name. The zoo is wonderful, well laid out, lots to see and do, pretty good food, and I could have spent the whole day watching the baby jaguar- who at our time of arrival was almost 4 weeks old. Swoon, gasp, omgee so so cute. Go to the Zoo. It would be entirely silly to go to San Diego and not visit this zoo.

yep, that is a cheetah and a dog. They are friends- get over it.

And that was the trip. I definitely recommend San Diego as a place to go. There is so much to do, great food, a lot of craft breweries around which means good beer, you can go to the beach, be a tourist or just walk the streets. A win in my book- would go back someday for sure.